


The Weight of the World

by Trixie_Baggins



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek (JJ Abrams movies), Star Trek: Into Darkness - Fandom
Genre: And I genuinely don't know if he counts as a major character, Avicii, Death, Major character death - Freeform, Music-Inspired, but not really, cause Khan doesn't really die, slight AU, wake me up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 08:07:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3760921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trixie_Baggins/pseuds/Trixie_Baggins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i><br/>'But we were condemned as criminals, forced into exile.  For centuries we slept, hoping that when we awoke, things would be.....different.'</i>
</p><p>Based loosely on the below lyrics from Avicii's 'Wake Me Up'</p><p>I tried carrying the weight of the world<br/>But I only have two hands<br/>Hope I get the chance to travel the world<br/>But I don't have any plans</p><p>Wish that I could stay forever this young<br/>Not afraid to close my eyes<br/>Life's a game made for everyone<br/>And love is the prize</p><p>So wake me up when it's all over<br/>When I'm wiser and I'm older<br/>All this time I was finding myself<br/>And I didn't know I was lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Weight of the World

They were the next generation of Starfleet. Just out of the Academy. Of the 74-person crew, only two of them didn't have some kind familial tie to Starfleet. The father of two of them, Khan and Katrina, had helped found Starfleet itself. They were twins, but he was slightly older than her. Since birth, the two of them had been thick as thieves, getting into trouble together, and getting out of it the same way. Their life at home was rocky at best, but they found the love and support in the crew that they now called their family. The two siblings were polar opposites, though. Where Khan was dark-haired and cold, Katrina was blonde and caring.

74 out of 126. They were specially chosen for this mission. When they graduated, Earth was at war with Khronos. They were the best and brightest in the universe, and they underwent special training to make them the physically strongest as well. Starfleet bragged about their new weapons, capable of ending the war. Little did they know that they were in fact those weapons.

It was always Khan. Or Captain. Never Captain Khan. And whenever Katrina would call him that, he threatened to make her captain. She would giggle and he would smile back at her. He was Captain and she was his First Officer, and the entire crew knew that if she said something, Khan probably would've said to do anything so they listened to her as well as they listened to their Captain, if not better because they liked her demeanor better.

They weren't proud of their actions and they had had to break a multitude of Starfleet rules in order to fulfill their duties. But the end justified the means, didn't it? After all, the war was over now, and peace reigned over the galaxy. They made the world a better place. But Starfleet wasn't proud of their actions either. At the end of the war, the Fleet cut all ties with Khan and his crew and sentenced them to death. 

The siblings knew that they had to do something. Khan had created a plan, but it required one person to stay behind on Earth and do the technical aspect of things. The two of them refused to ask anyone else; if they weren't willing to do it, how they could ask someone else? In the end, they cast lots. Katrina lost (or won, depending on how you looked at it). In Khan's eyes she lost, but in her eyes she won because she would know that her brother was safe. She had played the family card when he had forbade her from doing it. 'This crew is my family, Khan. Is there anything you would not do for your family?' Which was completely ironic, considering he was letting the one person that was his blood-family commit suicide in order to save him.

Khan's ship drifted off to the furthest corner of space while his sister was executed for the actions that Starfleet had now labeled crimes. For three centuries, their ship drifted, until being discovered. When Marcus approached him with the proposition of weaponizing Starfleet, Khan jumped at the opportunity because here was the chance he was looking for. The chance to get even for Starfleet's own crimes. And then later to repay Marcus for what he had done to his family. Because his crew was his family. And because for those three centuries, Khan never forgot, and he never forgave.

In all of his actions, Khan had no regrets, except for one. While he had been waiting for the opportunity to kill Admiral Marcus, he felt bad about doing it in front of his daughter. When he first glimpsed blue eyes and blonde hair, for a split second he thought about Katrina. Not how she was when she had died, but how she had been when she was his First Officer. Captain Katrina. It had such a ring to it. His twin (younger) sister had not approved of some of his actions, and he could see that in the girl, what was her name, Carol? Her father had done horrible things, but she still loved him. Khan had done some horrible things, they all had, but Katrina had still loved him. Loved him, in fact, enough to die for him. And so he had remorse for killing a father in front of a child because he thought of Katrina, and what would she would feel if someone had killed Khan in front of her. 

When Bones put him back into cryo, Khan went peacefully. And as he slept, he dreamed of blonde hair and blue eyes and a world in which people could work towards the greater good without being branded criminals or murderers. When Khan when into cryo, he went bittersweetly. For these were in fact the people he held the most dear, as he had told Captain Kirk, but what he had meant by that was they were the living people he held most dear. The most important part of his life had left it too many years ago to count.

For years, Khan and his crew had had the weight of the world's peace on their shoulders. Now they were nothing, just myth. He closed his eyes, and as his heartrate slowed, he thought about the one person who had loved him more than life, and he knew that if he could go back, he would do everything differently. Because now that he had lived and loved and lost he knew that power and peace were nothing compared to love. Yes, peace was nice, but love? Love was the true prize. Love made people start wars and pray for them to end. Love was power.

And so he slept, waiting for a day when things would be different. Waiting for the day that war was all over and peace reigned. Waiting for that day, and the person who would wake him up.


End file.
